Exercises for the Whole Family

It can be motivational and encouraging for children to do these exercises with you or the whole family. Take a break from your day to do some of these family-friendly exercises and activities!

Outdoor activities for the family

1. Football
2. PE Shed: This online resource has many great ideas for at-home P.E., including activities, games, and other resources to keep kids active.
3. Colour matching game: Draw circles on the sidewalk using chalk, each a different colour. Challenge your children to find items of similar colours and place them in the circles.
4. Red light, green light: Line everyone up on one side of the garden and have one person calling out “red light, green light.” To make it more fun, change the instructions from walking or running to jumping, skipping, or spinning!
5. Fitness bingo
   1. Fill out a bingo sheet with different exercises and call them out at random one at a time.
   2. After children complete the exercise, they can mark it on their bingo sheet. First to get bingo wins!
6. Football/basketball juggling in a group
7. Create your own obstacle course in your garden
8. Children lead an exercise circuit – their pick!
9. Get Kids Moving workouts: These fun workouts are made especially for kids, and have fun themes like Superheroes, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and more!
10. Beanbag toss (use paper plates or tape for targets).
11. Bowling (set up plastic cups or other objects as targets and roll or kick the ball)
12. Exercise stations: Set up four stations in your garden, each with a different exercise (hula hooping, jump roping, agility ladders, hopscotch, etc.) and do each for 30 seconds before rotating.
13. Sponge race: Using two teams, set up a bucket of water on one side of the race (one to share or one per team) and on the other side, place a cup or bucket for each team to fill. Children must race from one side with a sponge full of water and squeeze it out into the cup on the other side. First to fill their cup wins!
14. Balloon/beach ball striking: Don’t let it touch the ground!

Indoor Activities for the Family

1. Paper airplane contest: Design and make your own paper airplanes and then see how far they’ll fly! Use long hallways or big rooms to test distance or do fun tricks inside.
2. Obstacle course using household items
3. Treasure hunt: Hide an item somewhere in your home and write out clues or riddles for children to solve and find the item! You can also play hot and cold with this game, saying “warmer” as the person gets closer to the hiding spot and “colder” as he or she moves away from it.
4. The floor is lava! Don’t touch the floor as you get to the other side of the room.
5. Indoor bowling: Using softer objects and a hallway or clear space
6. Balloon volleyball
7. Indoor basketball: Use rolled-up socks as your ball and try to make it in targets, using yarn, paper plates, or baskets.
8. Agility ladders (use painter’s tape to mark ladder spaces).
9. Make an indoor laser maze using a hallway and painter’s tape.
10. Beanbag toss: Arrange targets in a line or spread out and see if you can land your beanbag on the target.
11. Hide-and-go-seek
12. Wax museum: Assign one person to be the guard. While his or her back is turned, everyone can move around freely, but when the person turns around, you have to freeze in your position! Don’t get caught moving.

Independent Activities for Your Child

Solo Outdoor Activities

1. Jump rope challenges: Assign a challenge each day. For example: 30 jumps without messing up, 10 skipping jumps in a row, etc.
2. Football exercises: Practice passing against a wall or juggling (set goals like 10–30 juggles in a row).
3. Shoot baskets, taping marks for where you want to practice shooting from.
4. Tennis against a wall
5. Agility ladder exercises: Write down which ones they should do.
6. Create your own workout calendar: Your child can check the calendar to see which exercise or activity is assigned (jump rope, ladders, basketball, yoga, etc.). Here’s an example of an exercise calendar.
7. Cosmic Kids Yoga can be done by kids by themselves!
8. P.E. with Joe: This YouTube channel supplies fun, kid-friendly workouts and exercises that can be done indoors or outdoors.
9. Ring toss: Use beanbags and paper plates or hula hoops and a cone or water bottle
10. Just Dance videos